The China Study vs the China study
..man, proud man,
Dress’d in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d…
From Measure for Measure by Wm Shakespeare
The web has been alive with commentary the past few weeks since Denise Minger lobbed her first cannonball of a critique across the bow of The China Study, the vessel T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. rode to fame and bestsellerdom. Seems like everyone is now jumping into the fray and gunning for poor Dr. Campbell, who early on in the fracas made a few halfhearted attempts to fight back but has now fled the scene. I’ve been laying low watching it all play out, and so now figured it’s about time I add my two cents worth to the debate. But first a little history.
I met Dr. Campbell about ten years ago (five or so years before the publication of the popular book The China Study) when we both spoke at the same conference. He was a nice enough man who spoke about the work he and his team had done in China gathering the data published in the massive 894 page monograph Diet, Life-style and Mortality in China (pictured above left). As Dr. Campbell presented his data ‘demonstrating’ the superiority of a plant-based diet and demonizing protein of animal origin, I didn’t think much about it because the data was all in the form of observational studies, which, as all readers of this blog should know by now, despite often showing correlation don’t prove causation. My lecture, which followed Dr. Campbell’s, was, as you might imagine, a lecture of a different sort. Then we both sat on a panel after our talks and fielded questions. And were both cordial to one another.
My last blog post reviewed a
“If I had to give you a single secret ingredient that could apply to the prevention — and treatment, in many cases — of heart disease, common cancers, stroke, infectious diseases from influenza to tuberculosis, type 1 and 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, insomnia, muscle weakness, joint pain, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and hypertension, it would be this: vitamin D.”
I’m putting up a short post just to let everyone know I’m still alive. MD and I have both had incredibly hectic schedules lately that have precluded us from attending to our blogs. MD and the Santa Barbara Choral Society just performed Ralph Vaughn Williams A Sea Symphony over the past weekend, which activity (the aforementioned wretched choral society) has consumed all her time. I, for the first time in a long time, have become a working stiff.








